HOUSE BILL REPORT

                 EHB 2416

                       As Passed House

                      February 14, 1994

Title:  An act relating to the judicial information system.

Brief Description:  Concerning the judicial information system.

Sponsors:  By House Committee on Revenue (originally sponsored by Representatives Sommers, Dorn, Dunshee, Silver, Appelwick, Wineberry, Riley, Dyer and J. Kohl; by request of Administrator for the Courts).

Brief History:

  Reported by House Committee on:

Revenue, February 5, 1994, DP;

Passed House, February 14, 1994, 95-0.

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON REVENUE

Majority Report:  Do pass.  Signed by 11 members:  Representatives G. Fisher, Chair; Holm, Vice Chair; Foreman, Ranking Minority Member; Anderson; Caver; Leonard; Romero; Rust; Talcott; Thibaudeau and Wang.

Staff:  Rick Peterson (786-7150).

Background:  The judicial information system account receives income from in-state noncourt users and from out-of-state users of the judicial information system.  The Legislature appropriates money in the account to support the judicial information system.  Service charges from noncourt users and out-of-state users amount to about $400,000 a biennium.  About $14 million a biennium is spent from the Public Safety and Education Account to support the judicial information system.

Summary of Bill:   The State Supreme Count may, by rule, increase fines, penalties, and assessments for deposit into the judicial information system account: $10 dollars is added to traffic infractions, a $10 appearance cost is assessed on defendants, and $10 assessment is added for each person requesting a time payment schedule on a traffic infraction.   The money in the account shall be used for acquisition of equipment and other costs incidental to the development and operation of the judicial information system.  The account is subject to appropriation by the Legislature.

Fiscal Note:  Available. 

Effective Date:  The bill contains an emergency clause and takes effect immediately.

Testimony For:  The judicial information computer system is the method by which courts communicate.  Courts use the system to find information on convictions in other courts and use the information when setting bail and making sentencing decisions.  Not all courts are connected to the system.  The backlog of requests for inclusion in the computer system is increasing.  The courts need a guaranteed funding source for the judicial information system.  The court's share of the Public Safety and Education Account has declined over time.  Most of the additional money will come from increased fines for traffic infractions.  It has been 10 years since these fines have increased.

Testimony Against:  None.

Witnesses:  Randy Dorn, sponsor; Justice Robert Utter, Supreme Court; and Mary McQueen, Office of the Administrator for the Courts.